At Boston Public Library, art and architecture tours really stack up

Monday

The hour-long tours explore the work of architect Charles Follen McKim and murals by John Singer Sargent, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, and Edwin Austin Abbey.

The Boston Public Library in Copley Square has thousands of books with stories, but it also has a fascinating one of its own. It’s a tale of vision and ambition, hopes and frustration that created a national landmark.

“The library trustees wanted it to be equal to the great buildings of Europe,” said Paul LaShoto to the two dozen people he led on the BPL’s daily Art & Architecture tour. “They wanted a palace for the people.”

To most people in Greater Boston, the building is so familiar that it’s easy to overlook how extraordinary it is. Designed by New York City architect Charles Follen McKim, it has a grand staircase surrounded by walls of imported Italian marble, murals by the celebrated artists John Singer Sargent and Puvis de Chavannes, and sculpture by Daniel Chester French, who later sculpted Abraham Lincoln for the Lincoln Memorial and the Minute Man in Concord.

When the trustees gave McKim free reign to realize his vision, they didn’t expect that the building would not open until 1895, seven years after the start of construction, and that it would cost $2.1 million, rather than $1.1 million. Eventually, they stopped funding and insisted he finish, which is why all the arched panels in the Bates Room reading room are covered in wall paint, rather than painted murals.

“They said, ‘No more painting. Just get it ready,” LaShoto said.

When it opened, it became the first free, public supported, lending library in a major American city and proudly declared its purpose with a carving above the entrance: “Built by the people and dedicated to the advancement of learning.” Later, it became the first library to have a children’s room and neighborhood branches.

Now, the library also is a destination for people who want good food, entertainment and relaxation. In the portico-bordered courtyard with a sculpture fountain and garden nearly 30 day and evening free summer concerts in a variety of genres take place. People enjoy formal afternoon tea in the Courtyard Restaurant , periodically accompanied by a fashion show, and breakfast and lunch from the Map Room Café and the Newsfeed Café which they can eat inside or a tables in the courtyard. All food is prepared by The Catered Affair, a South Shore company founded by Holly Safford.

McKim pursued his vision despite obstacles that would have deterred many others. After monks at the Italian quarry refused to sell him their marble, he returned numerous times, raising the offer until they finally acquiesced, LaShoto said. When muralist Chavannes refused to come to Boston to paint on site, McKim agreed to transport the murals from the artist’s studio. For the three sets of vestibule doors, he commissioned French, who sculpted 1,500 pound bronze doors with allegorical figures representing Music and Poetry, Knowledge and Wisdom and Truth and Romance. (The carved words “Truth is the strength and the kingdom and the power and the majesty of all ages” is worth pondering today.) Bordering the staircase, two large marble lions by sculptor Louis Saint-Gaudens memorialize Massachusetts Civil War infantry regiments.

“The building is palatial, and way more than was needed,” LaShoto said.

In the late 1800s, educated people would have been familiar with the Greek figures and stories in the The Muses, murals at the top of the staircase painted by Chavannes, the most prominent French muralist of his day. Similarly, they would have known the story of The Quest for the Holy Grail, painted on all the walls by American artist Edwin Austin Abbey in what is now known as the Abbey room. It’s a sumptuous space, 64 x 33 feet, with marble floors, ornamented rafters and fireplace mantel modeled after the library ceiling in the Doge’s Palace in Venice. For today’s visitors, there are laminated sheets that explain each mural.

For a highlight of the BPL, make sure to go to the top of the building where the Sargent Gallery is a dramatic space with Triumph of Religion, a series of murals by the celebrated American painter, who created them over 30 years and died before finishing the final one, which remains bare wall.

And don’t miss the Leventhal Map Center, where the exhibit “Breathing Room” uses maps to reveal how Boston and surrounding areas grew over centuries. Of particular interest are the sections on the Blue Hills and the Back Bay, which created the land for the Boston Public Library, Trinity Church and other landmark buildings.

Jody Feinberg can be reached at jfeinberg@patriotledger.com. Follow her on Twitter at JodyF_Ledger